Vettel leads Ferrari 1-2 in final practice

Sebastian Vettel led a Ferrari 1-2 during the final practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

On Super Soft tyres, Vettel clocked a time of 1:31.683 to finish 0.040s clear of team-mate Kimi Räikkönen, with Nico Rosberg in third.

Lewis Hamilton was fourth fastest after the Mercedes drivers initially matched each other on the Soft compound.

Valtteri Bottas claimed fifth while Haas’ encouraging start to life in Formula 1 continued with Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutiérrez in sixth and eighth.

They sandwiched Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat, with Felipe Massa in ninth after trialling a new front wing on the Williams FW38.

Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top 10, ahead of Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson and Renault returnee Kevin Magnussen, who must start from the pit lane after failing to stop at the weighbridge on Friday.

Jenson Button and Stoffel Vandoorne were 13th and 14th fastest, separated by just 0.040s, despite the Belgian missing a significant portion of the session due to an oil spillage.

Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr. made late improvements on the Soft tyres, ahead of Felipe Nasr, while Force India did not run the Super Soft compound, leaving Nico Hülkenberg and Sergio Pérez in 18th and 19th.

Jolyon Palmer suffered late drama when a left rear tyre failure pitched him wide at Turn 9 en-route to 20th, ahead of Manor’s Rio Haryanto and Pascal Wehrlein.